1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a joint connector with female terminals and male terminals that are connected electrically to the female terminals for shorting the female terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2012-150938 discloses a joint connector with a housing and a short-circuit busbar mounted in the housing. Male terminals are formed unitarily on the busbar and project into cavities of the housing. Female terminals mounted respectively on ends of wires are inserted into the cavities and connect electrically to the male terminals of the short-circuit busbar, thereby shorting the female terminals.
The housing is formed with locking lances for locking the female terminals in the respective cavities. Each locking lance is shaped to deflect in a direction perpendicular to the inserting direction of the female terminal as the female terminal is inserted into the cavity. However, the locking lances resiliently restore to engage the female terminal fitting that has been inserted completely, thereby preventing the female terminal from coming out. In this way, the female terminal inserted into each cavity is fit to the male terminal of the busbar along the inserting direction and is locked by the locking lance in that cavity.
A force for holding the female terminal in the housing depends on a characteristic of the locking lance engaged with the female terminal in the housing. However, a sufficient force can detach the locked female terminal in some cases. In such cases, a structurally complicated retainer has been added for doubly locking the female terminal in addition to the locking lance. Therefore the overall structure of the connector becomes complicated and a significant cost increase is incurred.
A waterproof resilient member made, for example, of rubber and having a complicated shape has to be arranged at each position if fluid- or watertightness is required for each female terminal, and the structure becomes more complicated.
In view of the above, the invention aims to provide a connector that can hold each terminal with a sufficient force without requiring a resiliently deformable locking lance and a retainer for locking the terminal. The invention also relates to a joint connector capable of collectively fluid- or waterproofing each terminal by a simple structure.